[Applause] Amen. I don't want to share my Yeah, we could. We don't like that. But yeah first [Music] resolution. [Music] [Applause] I can't see that. [Music] [Music] Good morning [Applause] Marisol, are we ready? Good morning everyone. Uh we'll call the meeting to order. It's uh 9:05 a.m. and uh everyone to stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. You can do the roll call, please. I think it's the list. I want to uh welcome one of our new members of the no uh Mayoria from Horizon City. I don't know if you want to say a few words on behalf of the city. Oh, I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to be here with you all. Um, you know, as you know, Horizon City is a booming booming city right now. Um, and we well, we invite all of you to come out and visit and see what we're all about because we're we're really proud of our city. So, thank you all for having us. We're excited to have you. Thank you. All right, so we're ready for roll call. Apologies for the delay. Uh starting with uh chair uh senator recesses Blanco, vice chair mayor Javier Perea, Mayor Rudy Cruz, representative Chris Canales here, Mayor Ramono, Mayor Miguel Chakon, Representative Alejandra Chavez here, uh New Mexico Senate Senator Joseph Cvantes, Aaron Chavaria, Anthony Daiser, uh, Representative Art Fiero, uh, Commissioner Gloria Gomez, uh, Representative Mary Gonzalez, I Hernandez, Commissioner Ignana Olin, uh, Mayor Renard Johnson, U, Mayor Martin LMA, um, city manager Dion H Representative Joe Moody present. Representative Eddie Morales. Uh Mayor Dana Mour present. Tony Navarees here. Representative Claudia Oras. Representative Vince Perez. Uh Mayor Rachel Kintana here. Mayor Andy Rantia. Judge Ricardo Samano here. Representative Sarah Silva and Thomas. So we do have quum. Thank you. Um Maris, do we have anything anyone for open comment period for item 12B? For 12B. Okay, we'll take that up uh during item 12B. Um whether you want to proceed with the uh the agenda. Absolutely. All right. So beginning with discussion and action items. Item one is consider approval of the minutes of the April 18, 2025 TPB meeting. We have a motion. Uh we have a second. Any opposed? All in favor? Motion passes. Item number two. Item number two, A and B deal with uh uh two projects in the state of New Mexico connected. So let me read it into the uh to the record and you may want to take them together. So A is amend the New Mexico 213 New Mexico 404 interchange Improvements Project CN322-N B608X to reduce surface transportation program flex funds from 3,435,374 to 0 reduce fast order state INFA funds from 2,772,895 to 122,112 12. Reduce National Highway Performance Program funds from $8,91629 to 8,210871 and increase National National Highway Freight Program funds from 13,914,485 to 13,94,486 for a revised total project cost of 69,247,46. $69 in fiscal year 2025. And then item B to amend the New Mexico 213 widening uh project to increase national highway performance program funds from 10,72,000 to 337 to 18 million7,06 76,586 increase STPF funds from 3,620,96 to 5,59,052 Increase vast border state infra funds from 2,772,894 to 5,423,626 and add 2,900,748 of surface transportation program rural funds for a revised total project cost of 56,564,862 in fiscal year 2025. I hope it was clear because I don't want to repeat this. Members, do we have any questions? Do we have a presentation on item number two? We do. But again, this item was um uh reviewed and and um recommended by TAC. Again, this has to do with the projects in in uh in the state of New Mexico for New Mexico 44 and New Mexico 213, which are the connection that on the New Mexico side for the Borderland Expressway. So certainly a a very valuable project and this is just you know almost administrative to to move uh funds around but you know we clearly support this as a staff. Great. Do we have a motion to approve item number two? We have a motion. Do we have a second? Uh all in favor? Any opposed? Motion passes. Item number three. Item number three also for the state of New Mexico. These are transit projects. It's consider approval of amendments to the amended regional mobility strategy RMS 2050 metropolitan transportation plan MTP and the RMS 2025 2028 transportation improvement program tip for the New Mexico projects a program the microtransit operating assistance fiscal year 255307 project using $150,000 of FDA 5307 urbanized area formula funds in fiscal year 2026. 6 B program the preventive maintenance fiscal year 25 5307 project using 556,000 of FTA 5307 urbanized area formula funds in fiscal year 26 program the microransit capital assistance project using 100,000 of FTA 5307 urbanized area formula funds in fiscal year 2026 program the sland park garage update project using $216,000 of FDA 5307 urbanized area formula funds in fiscal year 2026 E program the Sunland Park fencing update project using $96,000 of FTA 5307 urbanized area formula funds in fiscal year 2026 and F program the Sullen Park buswash project using $102,954 of FDA 5307 seven urbanized area formula funds in fiscal year 2026. Again, these are all uh transit projects in the state of New Mexico that that need to be programmed in in in the tip. So, we have presentation or happy to answer any questions here. Members, any questions? Do we want the presentation? Okay. Do we have a motion to approve? We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Uh all in favor say I. Opposed? Motion passes. Item number four. Item number four, another uh project, but this is a to program funds from a grant. Item four is consider approval of an amendment to the amended regional mobility strategy RMS 2050 metropolitan transportation plan and the RMS 20252028 transportation improvement program TIP to program the Moon Road complete streets PE phase project using a mill728,951 of category 10 US do rebuilding American infrastructure and sustainability and equity race program funds in fiscal year 2026. And with that, we also have a a presentation if if you want to uh more details on this, but everything's in your backup. Members, any questions? Okay. Do we have a motion to approve item number four? Have a motion. We have a second. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Passes. Item number five. All right. Item five is consider authorizing the executive director to sign letters of support for the following grant applications. Again, items A through E as written on the on the agenda. Again, we have we're happy to answer any questions regarding the uh any of these letters of u of support. Um let let me just say that for item number A which is a local applications for the fiscal year 2025 text transportation alternative project call uh there's there was a lastm minute change that uh is reflected in in the draft letter which is in your backup but not in the presentation and this has to do with the uh an application for the deck park uh project that initially um it was going to be the the deck park uh uh foundation as a sponsor, but it was modified so that the city of El Paso will now be the the sponsor for that. And um and because of that, the city can only uh submit two applications. So they so they drop one. So the two that the city uh is going to be uh submitting are for the deck and the other one is for a trail. and all that is in your backup, but happy to present or give you more information if you all want. Any questions? Do we have a motion to approve item number five? We have a motion. Second. We have a second. All in favor say I. Opposed. Motion passes. All right. Six. Item number six, consider authorizing the submittal of a federal functional roadway classification request to the state of Texas and the Federal Highway Administration for Railroad Drive as a principal arterial. Again, the this item um has to do with uh requesting functional classification, which is one of the requirements for a a roadway um to be eligible to receive federal funds. Again, the functional classification has to do with with u how this facility is being proposed as a principal arterial, as a freeway, as an expressway, whatever it is. But it but part of the process uh requires taking it to the policy board and getting your your approval to submit it uh to text and to the Federal Highway Administration. And again, it's for Railroad Drive, which is one of the projects that's been uh identified as a priority projects for the last five years where the city of El Paso is responsible. It's a good project. Members, any questions? We have a motion to approve. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. We have a second. Um for item number seven. Seven. All right. Item seven, consider approval of the federal fiscal year 2026. I'm sorry. We're We're in the middle of approving item six, right? Yes. I'm I'm sorry. Yeah, we're approving item six. Did you vote on Oh, not yet. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, so we have a motion to approve item number six. We have a second. Uh, all in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Item number seven. I'll drink decaf. All right. Item seven is consider approval of the federal fiscal year 2026 2027 unified planning work program. And on this one uh we do have a presentation. Harrison Floyd will give you the information on the UPWP. Good morning chair and board members. Harrison Floyd with El Paso. Uh this is a short short presentation on our uh proposed unified planning work program. Next slide. So, as you know, the uh UPWP is our main work program uh listing all of the activities that the MO is uh planning to conduct over a 2-year period. Um this new document will begin on October 1st of this year. Uh the document also contains uh planning related spending that is associated with uh uh the federal transit administration 5307 uh funding program and that's uh spending done by transportation providers in the area. Next slide. We're utilizing a template for the UPWP that is produced by uh text. Um, and so all of the UPWPs across the state have these five tasks as uh overarching categories. Next slide. Task one includes all of our administrative uh related activities. um preparing for all of our public meetings, uh all of our other public participation opportunities, keeping our website uh up to date. Um and uh anytime that staff participates in training or attends conferences, things of that nature, uh that time is put under task one. Next slide. For task two, uh this includes all of our uh data related um maintenance for GIS, our GIS systems, uh as well as the development and update of the CMP, which you'll see another presentation on later this morning. Um our performance measures, uh target setting, um and development and uh uh reporting on those measures, all of that is included in here. And um the multimodal access to essential service. This is uh us working with uh uh again public transportation providers and just in general uh focused on our efforts to uh look at non-motorized transportation options. Next slide. Under the short range planning section, we have of course uh all of the um uh logistics that go along with the project amendments that you all approve every month um into the tip as well as the MTP um as well as the UPWP itself and a few of the other documents that uh we do as part of our um transparency that we're required to do. Next slide. Task four uh is for the development and update of the MTP as well as the travel demand model itself and all of our emissions testing and uh uh projection uh activities. Next slide. And the final task covers topics that don't fit under any of the others. Uh and generally are one-off projects. So here uh included is uh the um safety plan that we are uh have been developing over the last uh 9 10 months or so. Next slide. And then we also have the two projects that we're just getting underway um with the uh IBC strategic plan and the border highway connector phase 2 uh alternatives and and feasibility. Next slide. So as I mentioned at the beginning uh the UPWP also includes activities that the uh transit providers are conducting that are related to transportation planning. So you look into the UPWP, you'll see sections under many of the uh subtasks that were uh mentioned on the previous slides uh with narratives about how the uh transit providers are contributing or what uh planning work they are doing that is related to those tasks. Next slide. So this is a look at the uh uh the trend in funding. Um we primarily utilize the planning grant funding. Uh that's that's the main source of funding for the UPWP at the staff level. Uh but we do have a mix. Um and so some of those uh sources are going up and some of them are going down. But ultimately the uh result is uh we do see a continuing increase. Next slide. We did hold a 30-day public comment period starting on May 14th and we conducted two public meetings specifically on this as well as uh what you're going to see in the next item on the agenda. Um May 20th we held a virtual public meeting and uh June 4th it was a hybrid meeting where you could come to our offices uh or participate online and uh uh the comment period ended on June 12th and we did not receive any comments uh related to the documents. Next slide. This is the development schedule for all of the UPWPs across the state. This comes from Texot. You'll see um in green there in the middle that our submittal deadline for the final UPWP is July 15th. So this is our meeting to get it approved. Next slide. So the staff recommendation is to approve the federal fiscal year 2627 UPWP and the TAC uh forwards that same recommendation based on the results of the meeting on June 4th. And I believe that's all for the presentation. Uh if you have any questions, I can take them. Any questions? Can I just Sure. Please something on what I think is notable is on the on the funding slide. Um what is I I think really really cool for us is that uh as Harrison explained the the basic funding that we receive every year from planning funds both from federal highway and from from the federal transit administrations uh is in the ballpark of about $2 million plus or minus. uh you see that that uh right now we're doing more than 4 million and that's what we're showing in this UTP and that's because we've been able to get grants to do some of the special studies that that we're that Harrison referred on us as part of task 5. So the fact that uh that we have a $2 million grant that this board approved to do the strategic plan for the international border crossings, that's super cool. Um another $2 million that we're going to talk about later on for the border highway connector. So that in itself is $4 million which you know duplicates our our our you know the funding that that we have available. It's for a specific work but uh but the fact that you know we're able to to do these you know get funding to do some really really cool things that that really enrich the planning process and and the the mission of the of the MTO. So just wanted to mention that as well. Great work and thank you Harrison for the presentation. Uh members, do we have a motion uh for item number seven? Motion to approve. We have a second. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. Item number eight. Number eight, consider approval of the El Paso MO Americans with Disability Act ADA accessibility plan. And on this we have an Gante with a presentation. Good morning chair and board members. So, this item is to adopt the MO's first ever ADA accessibility plan under title two of the 1990 America's Americans with Disabilities Act. Um, this went through the same public comment cycle that our UPWP did as you will see on the slide where we discuss our uh uh public involvement process. Uh, next slide please. So to start, this is a brief explanation of what it is. It's a plan that uh demonstrates how we are meeting our requirements under federal law to uh ensure that our programs and our spaces are accessible to all members of the public. Um if we were a municipality or a larger entity that owned roads, owned parks, etc., This would be a much longer and more detailed document that contained a a description of how each of our many many various holdings met that obligation. But as we are a about 10 person staff, we rent one office and we have meetings in this building and a couple other locations, it's it's much shorter. Um but so it does contain certain required elements such as our non-discrimination policy, our grievance procedures, um an inventory and self-evaluation o of how our facilities and programs meet our obligations or could be improved upon and what the timeline would be for those improvements. Next slide, please. So this lists the required elements. Um I'm going to go through them a little faster than uh are shown in this presentation. These are all part of your backup. Um with our introduction, we talk about the relevant federal law that we need to meet in this uh as demonstrated by this plan. We have some details about who we are and and what we do. Um we have a separate section for our non-discrimination policy which is also posted on our website. uh as is the grievance procedure uh which is also uh replicated in this plan. Um and then a little bit of kind of statistical information about the MO itself just our primary duties and uh a little bit of a breakdown of uh concerning the projects that we fund. Uh next slide please. So kind of the the the main section of this plan just where we where we spend uh most of most of the uh the energy within the plan is on the uh inventory itself. So this contains two sections. There's a physical inventory and then there's a program inventory. So within our physical inventory, we have our building itself. when you walk up to the door over on Florence Street, you know, uh what's our ramp situation? What's our entrance situation? What's our elevator situation? Um and then are we also making sure that our facilities are okay if you're sight impaired? Um and then when you get to our office suite itself, we kind of go item by item. We start at the front door. We start at how far that is from the elevator. We talk about how it is to enter our building, what our how how accessible our meeting rooms are, our offices themselves, even our some of our staff only facilities. Um, and in this we have a a little bit of a detail about how we did and we also have a chart that we have fully replicated within this presentation and was it is within the plan itself. Um and then it also after we describe the accessibility, note our deficiencies, provide a timeline for when we might correct those. Um we have a a section on monitoring compliance. That one's really really short. We just state that we are going to follow uh the text dot guidelines for monitoring and compliance. Um so next slide please. So, this is where the draft plan lives and the permanent plan uh is where its home is going to be is also listed there as well for anyone who's interested in looking at it and doesn't like looking at it on paper in your backup. Um, next slide please. All right. So, this is just the particular sections of federal law that we need to follow. Um, this is summarized. They're printed in full in the plan itself. Next slide please. Uh update frequency and public involvement. We plan on updating this uh on the cycle in which we update our tip which is every two years and it's set out in uh um in the uh by by the by the state. So the reason that we're doing that it's not necessarily anything pinned to the tip but it's just it's a best practice because it gives us a timeline just okay so we're doing this we're going to do this too. Um and then public involvement that describes the public involvement that was held for this plan and then also you know just what we what we would attempt to do as a best practice moving forward. Next slide please. Um, this describes how we will make sure that if you need to see this plan or if you want to see this plan, how we're going to make sure that you get to. Um, and interested parties means people who would be interested in finding this on their own and people that we think should be interested. Like if we have a contractor or a consultant doing some work for us, we want to make sure that they understand that they since they're receiving money from us and we receive money from the feds that they are obligated to follow this too. Um, and then also our contact person, that's uh that's going to be Harrison, our assistant director. Next slide, please. So, this is the background. This explains who we are. Um, some some charts, some explanatory text, um, what our duties are, and who's on our boards and how we make our decisions. Next slide please. And yeah, cool charts, cool paragraphs, but um it just says what the MO staff does. Next slide, please. And then this is our non-discrimination statement. This is pretty standard across the board. Everyone tends to adopt the same one and so are we. Next slide please. Grievance policies. If you happen to note a deficiency, we have a clearly spelled out policy for how you would bring that to our attention. Uh the steps for resolving it and the appeals process. Next slide, please. So this is uh the inventory and self-evaluation. This is kind of the the the fun and interesting part if you really like reading about uh measurements and uh whether each you know how how each specific uh attribute of the MO fared. All righty. So, next slide please. So, we got our building entrance, we got our elevators, fire egress, restrooms, uh mostly meat, minor minor areas for improvement in signage and fire egress. uh because we're on the second floor of our facility and uh it's stairs down if in case the elevator does not work due to fire or shouldn't be used due to fire. Um signage what we noted was that uh we there there's limited signage within our building that's in braille and some of that we have some direct control over. Some of that we would just be asking our landlord and they would be free to say yes or no. Next slide please. And then uh for our main office and staff entrance and our cubicles and how they measure our kitchen, our meeting rooms and our hallways. Um minor issues noted with our entrance. Namely that um if the door is closed and locked, it could be difficult for someone who is using an assisted mobility device or even not to uh to alert us to their presence. And that's something that we can fairly easily remedy. Um and then also for some of the staff only areas that mainly had to do uh with shelving storage within um within our staff kitchen and a storage area and also an entrance door to a supply closet is 24 in um which you know uh is not the minimum is 30 uh but that is an area that is accessed very infrequently even by staff. Next slide please. All right. So for all we also looked at not only just how are we physically to access but we also looked at okay so for our programs for our meetings for our website how are we doing what do we what do we need to improve upon? Um so for the most part um for meetings in particular we have a very clearly articulated process already in our public participation plan and it describes what we need to look for in the locations where we hold our meetings whether that is in our building or whether that is in places like this. Um for our website itself, we did run a checker on our website and we had a couple noted deficiencies mainly in the area of uh color contrast and then also in how the headings in particular are laid out. Um there are some minor organization issues with like the level of header on certain sections. Um and so we did note that as something that we could improve upon. Next slide please. All right. So, this chart is uh several slides long and it's going to show you exactly what we noted when we did our evaluation and then what the corrective action is and the time frame under which this would be completed. And also, as you read through the document and each subsection, we do note just as you're reading how we did. So, we don't just save it up for the end and just say whether it was good or not. We say as we're moving through, here's how this one is. Here's how this one is. Here's how this one is. And then here is the chart at the end that just explains very, very easily, quick and dirty, what we need to fix and when. Next slide. There's going to be several like this. This is in your backup too. And then the one uh for the storage room doorway that it's it's a little staff only area, very infrequently accessed. And this would require our landlord to widen our door. And uh in the short term, we figure that if someone needs assistance in accessing this area, they you know, someone else will help them with providing, you know, with entering that room for them. And in some future renovation, we will address the door, but not in the short term. Um and then also this doesn't necessarily have a particular item associated with it, but um a a registered accessibility specialist. Uh we will we will ensure that they uh help us with our next review just in case there's there's anything that uh that they note that we can add to this list and and make better. Uh next slide, please. And then uh so this addresses our website and when uh the one thing that we do need to add is our public participation plan has a list of all of our documents. It has their update schedule. It has how they're amended. It has what level of amendment, whether something would be handled just as, you know, administrative fix a typo. Um you know, change someone's name on our board membership as board membership updates, things like that. or if it would require a formal amendment in public involvement. Um so with our next update to our public participation plan, we will add this new plan to it and then also we will be addressing our uh accessibility errors currently present on our website um and adding a uh a widget for ease of use. There's a a couple good examples locally of entities that have this already and we will be probably using one of the same ones as they use. Um, next slide, please. So, staff is recommending that uh that the board adopt this plan today and uh our TP uh our TAC rep recommendation is the same. Um, and then uh let's see, next slide please. Oval Park even though Misovo placed the no placard, you know, for us to you'll still park there and then you got to be going crazy and and the plate. It's just that's hard. Yeah, it is indeed one one of the one of the challenges you parking in general, right? But um but yeah, it it adds to the complexity of of you know setting up the meeting and and um and you know beginning the the meetings. So just to follow up on that, so there is no designated ADA parking space when we have our NPO meetings. M I don't believe it's designated and Marisol can correct me if I'm wrong, but what we do is that when we work with the uh with the city of El Paso to reserve the spaces that you all have, you know, when they they put the covers on on the meter so that other people cannot cannot use them. Um but what we are doing is that the space that that is in front of the building um what what we do to to you know make sure that it's available for Mayor Muro Marisol comes in early parks her car in that spot and then we do the the switcheroo. I'm I'm almost here. But it's hard because sometimes she's busy and and so I'm there waiting or you know and and then when she moves one time she moved and somebody got in there I was like and so I had to kindly ask you know can you move this? And they're like is there any way we could somehow designate that so that nobody can park there? Uh um it is designated like we have the the it's bagged but there's people that still do it. Mr. Park and I've called before like to have them um miso correct me if I'm wrong, but it's not a uh an ADA space normally, right? It's a regular marketing space. So, that's probably part of the issue. People know 29 days out of the month, the regular space and they can park there. Is there a way to make it a temporary ADA space? Uh, I think that would be a question for the city that maybe we can uh work with them. Yeah. So, if only we had some city reps here. We have a mayor person. Definitely ask. Are we back? The ideal. Oh, okay. The ideal scenario would be what? so that we know to have a spot to have a designated uh ADA spot on NO days for um for uh ADA accessibility for board members. I don't believe we have a temporary ADA spot in the code. Explore that. Yeah, I think it would be great. It's interest like when when you're reserving a meter, I think you can theoretically reserve it for whatever you want. So, it's very possible that that the no could put something on the bag that they backed the meter with. Does the city have those? If they have a bag, do you have an ADA bag? That's what I'm saying. I don't think we have that in the code. There's a clear insert on the front of the bag where you can say what it's reserved for. And I think what uh Rep. Canales is is suggesting is that on that particular bag within that clear window, it specifies. It does. Does. Okay. It does. Just don't have it. No, wait. Like right now it does have it. Oh, it does. Yes. Like and it has the the symbol, but it's just that just people just Yeah. Park. I think um I think people don't care about the bag. Like I do want to thank El Paso because they've been so good to me. Like Marisol, um Mr. Caro have been really good to me. It's just like a they don't see it blue. So, I mean, it's just a What color is it? Like black or green bag? Green. So, people just I don't know if the city may have if we can look to see if there's a blue bag with with a with a clear symbol, a little symbol that replaces it. Might be a couple of different options that maybe we can options that that are clearly, you know, a reserved ADA spot. Um, that'd be helpful. Any other questions? All right. Uh, do we have a motion to approve um item number eight? Move to approve motion. Do we have a second? All in favor say I. Opposed. Motion passes. Item number nine. All right. Item number nine is consider approval of the staff recommendation to select a consultant for the border highway connector phase 2 traffic impact and improvements feasibility analysis project and to authorize the executive director to negotiate and execute a consultant agreement. Um, so as Harrison mentioned in the UPWP item, this is one of the one of the special studies that that we're conducting and we have a a brief uh presentation on on this. We can pull it up. Um, let me start by saying that um that the funding for this project is coming from the state of New Mexico. the the state legislature um carved out $2 million to do this study and uh we're that that that those funds are coming in through the New Mexico Border Authority and I see Herardo, where are you? Gerardo Fier, the executive director of the border authority. All right, so next slide, please. All right. So, the background, um, the border highway connector project, not the not phase two, but the border highway connector project is one that the New Mexico Department of Transportation is is planning. It's a new location facility. The ultimate is a fourlane uh facility that would connect the Santa Teresa port of entry going east and connecting to um uh McNut which is New Mexico 23 uh 236 in the vicinity of the city of Sun Park. So it's a it's a direct shot uh very close to the Santa Teresa port of entry going east and connecting uh to McNut. Um it is important to to do this quickly because the it is anticipated to begin construction the border highway connector in 2025. So, as the project was developing and New Mexico DOT did their their public comments and of course, you know, coordinating with the with the MO, um, several stakeholders started, you know, raising questions and concerns about especially the connection to McNut, right? Because yes, you're connected to McNut, but then what, you know, those those vehicles and think about, you know, potentially 18 wheelers. Um, where are they going to go? their destinations could be warehouses at the airport, Bartfield or Butterfield Trail or um going to the east side to uh and so on. So there was concern about how they were going to once they connect to McNut how that traffic is going to be distributed right. So the question is you know what do we do? Next slide. So this is the border highway connector project itself right. So uh the the connection to P domenichi is about it's about a mile north of the port of entry. So, you know, right in the vicinity. And the advantage of this is that for for all the the traffic that wants to go to El Paso today, they have to go about 8 n miles north and then, you know, 90° going going east and then connecting to our craft and to get to I 10, right? So, this obviously would save a lot of travel time and adds another connection, right? because right now um artcraft and and pitomen is really the only access that we have to Santa Teresa. So that in itself is is a plus right so that's what the what New Mexico do is is planning on building next slide. So when you expand it, what you see in green is a project. But then the question is, well then all this traffic once they they come into the uh into the city of El Paso, then you know where are they going to go and and what are the potential hotspots? Where are we going to have issues, right? So the the the pins that you see in that map are ones that that we need to look at. Could be could be others, right? Part of the the work that we're going to do is to identify the hot spots, but could be for example the the intersections of uh SA Park Drive and Donovan. That in itself today is a mess. Then that intersection is congested, right? So imagine additional traffic with potentially 18 wheelers over there. Racetrack and Donovan is another another possibility, but that you know the intersection is very tight. Um, again, you know, it's not only 18 wheelers obviously that we're looking at, but uh but but the bigger the bigger vehicles are the ones that that could create more more issues. And uh and it's not only there in the immediate vicinity, but let's say that you know some vehicles continue on McNut going into the into Texas crossing through the Cerse bridge, crossing the the river on the Cersine Bridge, getting into Pyano. Well, at that point, McNut goes from four lanes to two lanes, uh one per direction. And the bridge is one lane per direction. So is that a bottleneck? Yes or no? And and so on. Next slide. So then we're calling it phase two. It really is not phase two of the border highway, but it's you know sort of like analyzing the impacts, right? So again, it's $2 million funded by the New Mexico legislature. Um and the scope we're we're planning on doing this in in two big uh sort of like steps. The first step is do a lot of modeling where we we need to figure out how much traffic really is going to be using this facility, right? So starting from the regional at the regional level um and thinking more about about trucks u as well as as private vehicles, right? But of all the of all the crossings that we have in the region, well, how many really would be using this, you know, crossing through Santa Teresa? Number one. Number two, how many of those vehicles would continue going straight on Pommenichi and then how many would make the right turn to to use a border highway connector, right? And then once we we again we have a a good feeling of the of the traffic and then identify those hotspots and evaluate them, right? So I you know we're thinking that that it'll be pretty clear which are the the glaring you know hot spots that are that are you know super you know complicated that we need to address right so then the second part of the study would be to identify solutions and develop solutions right if we think you know one of the intersections that I mentioned well um then do some some more you know technical work engineering work right to say okay if this intersection is a problem. What are the issues that we have there? Now, we get into issues of, you know, do we have rideaway? Yes or no? Do we have utility conflicts? Do we have uh you know, we know that that the BNSF railroad is is there. So, that's an issue. Uh if it's Donathan, we know that Donathan is uh has, you know, severe drainage issues. Um again, utility. So, what is it? And but but the the the intent is at the end of the study, the work product for this at the end of this is to be able to say here's a very detailed feasibility study that could be the city of El Paso or it could be New Mexico DOT on on the McNut quarter or whoever it is. They now have a solid starting point to say this is what we need to do. It's going to you know this here's a geometry. this is the approximate cost, but have a really really good idea of what the challenges are, right? and uh and move forward and then you know figure out a way how to fund and and implement those solutions as quickly as possible because again overall the border highway connector project I think it you know I think we all agree it's is is a good project in the sense that it provides more connectivity and improves the the um you know the the crossber movement of of people trucks vehicles and and goods. Um so with that uh there's going to be a a very intense uh stakeholder involvement with on the Mexican side as well. uh because you know these are many many of them are are the users of our of our crossings right so you know we we don't want to analyze this and design solutions without asking the the users right I mean because again the data the analysis and all that can tell us some things but but there are several things that that we're going to need to to understand um you know what drives the choices of of a of a you know freight movements and people in terms of their ports of entry. So that's a long- winded introduction. So here we are uh today in in um in finalizing the process, the procurement process to engage a consultant to provide the services. Next slide. So here's the the selection process. And and by the way, uh big thanks to the city of El Paso, the CI department that that assisted us with the procurement. Uh great job they did helping us to to do this. So it's again it's a qualifications based that follows a federal process even though the funding is is state but but it it's a it's a more robust procurement procedure. Um we did in two phases. Phase one was uh requesting a statement of qualifications. We were very fortunate to receive eight uh statements of qualification or proposals from um major consulting firms. Uh we shortlisted four of those eight for the next phase which was an interview. Um and again the the um you know the final scores were were a combination of the score that the that they got on the on the written part and the interviews. So with that um the the next step that we are requesting is you know getting the the uh uh concurrence on the selection and authorizing um well me and and staff to negotiate a a master agreement with the consultant firm um which would be the the next steps. Next slide please. So these are the results of the only shows of the four four listed uh companies. All this information by the way is in your backup. So um after you know um combining the scores of the written proposal and the interview uh HDR engineering uh came up on on top. So our recommendation is to to uh to get se well for you all to to concur on the selection of HR and allow us to to move forward with the next step. Next slide which is what we have here as the recommendation. Just a point of clarification one of the uh two slides back it said select GPC. Oh is that can you go back a couple slides? That's probably a typo. Yes, you you are absolutely right. Okay. So, we're gonna So, the staff recommendation is to go with HDR, correct? Correct. Right. Yeah. I mean, you can tell that this is this mirrors the process that we used uh a year ago to select the GPC, right? So, similar process, good catch. Any questions on for item number nine? Uh represent Moody. So, the the construction of the of the alternative that's in the first photographic slide, that's done. That that funding is already in line and they're going to start construction on that in 25. So, this is now a $2 million allocation to look at the traffic patterns after that's built. Yes. This seems a little bit backwards to me. Absolutely. That that is I'm looking at the map. They're coming up Hosy Road. I mean, you've got I mean, these are two-lane roads. I mean, they're running right right by a neighborhood, right? Um, do we have can someone supply us to the the other than this map that's in this packet, some of the other documents related to this alternative 3A? That's something that can be provided to us. Right. So, so that through some of their Right. So all of the project development activities for the border highway connector project uh have been done by New Mexico DOT. They follow you know they're completing the their NEPA document looking at different alternatives. I don't have any No, I know that's gone through the process. I just if I could if there's stuff that I could look at in terms of this 3A as it's designated here um because it looks like we've kind of going in reverse. We usually look at these because I mean the reason we're investing all the development in our craft the sale delorte the direct feeder direct connectors up in the northwest corridor is to flow this traffic up through that area and you know we're going to raise we're raising the highways we're doing I mean it's it's it's an extensive project over I think what five years to do that and this has this could have I mean this can have the net effect of I mean You'd have to raise these highways up and over Don. I mean that that that congestion at Donovan and Sunum Park is it's untenable depending on where this traffic's going. I guess I guess that's what we'll find out. So all right. Um yeah, if there's any other backup information on the construction project as it's already planned aside from what we're going to study, right? What's already in the queue? Yes. I mean definitely you know the New Mexico DOT has a website for the project and and uh you know we can get you the u you know the presentation the slides and that's what I'm looking for. Thank you. I appreciate that. But to your point that's why this this is important to to start as soon as possible. There may be some delays in in um you know getting the project to construction. Um, again, you know, we're not managing that that project, but if there are some delays, in a way, it's good because it it buys us some time to start repairing this. I mean, I get the need and you do need other relief out of that port, particularly with all the other stuff that's going to kind of ripple effect across the region. I just concerned about the timeline. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay. So, we'll get we'll get the uh represent Moody that information. Absolutely. And if you could present it to the entire body, that'd be great. Okay. Um any more questions regarding item number nine. We have a motion to approve item number nine. So moved. We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? All in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Item 10. All right. So now moving on to items, reports and discussion. Item 10 is congestion management process update, congestion data analysis and strategies. We have a a brief presentation from uh Robbie Guthard who's part of the uh consultant team that's helping us with this. So Robbie, go for it. All right, morning everyone. Um here let me share my screen. All right. All right. I should be sharing my screen right now. Um, but yeah, my name is Robbie Gutart. Thanks for having me again. Um, I'm here to give an update to you all on the congestion management process and where we're at today. So, just a reminder on screen right here, I have the eight-step framework that we've been working through um to get to the finish line for the CMP. Um last time we spoke, I gave an update on steps one, two, and three, which covered regional objectives, what that network looks like, the geography that we're addressing congestion, and the multimodal performance measures that align with the with the objectives. um that we're addressing. Um so today I'm going to give an update on um our findings and results for the last five steps. So that's collecting the data, analyzing the data to understand what those congestion challenges and needs are. And then um really the the exciting part of the CMP so identifying and assessing strategies to address those challenges and needs. And then these last two steps which are to program and implement strategies which is that key piece um of integrating with the MTP and then step eight which is um setting up a um framework to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies that we've defined um through this process in the future. So now I'll just go through each step steps four through eight just giving an update of um our findings. So step four again is to collect data, monitor system performance. So through this process, we took multiple data sets, process them, integrated them into a single file. Um and with being multiple data sets, they had multiple attributes were sourced from a variety of different sources. Um the key sources I have on screen, which is the national performance management research data set. Um this is the key source of data for travel time data, speed data, average daily traffic. Um this is really the data that we get um to assess congestion. Um and with that we also have of course two data sets from New Mexico um DOT and text dot um just with some of those those physical characteristics um including number of lanes shoulder width um and other physical characteristics that are helpful for us to identify the proper strategy for when we're seeing a congestion need. Um and then we also have crash data from Texot and New Mexico DOT as well. So step five was then taking that data and then really analyzing um what do we see as those challenges and needs um in the region for congestion and we look at that both at a systemwide level and a corridor level. Um, so at a systemwide level, well actually you see some overlap between some of the metrics. Um, but we looked at at a systemwide level we looked at speed, travel time index, landing time index, and buffer time index, which these are all really just different measures of um how long it takes you to get to your from your origin to your destination and the region. Just a different ways of looking at that. Um, and similarly at the corridor level. So these are really at these segments we looked at um speed travel level of travel time reliability, truck travel time reliability and peak hour excessive delay which are again just other metrics that we can apply just at that corridor or segment level to assess uh congestion across the region. Um step six. So then after analyzing um these congestion needs, these challenges, then we start identifying um different strategies that we can document in that final CMP document which we're working on now. And again, similarly, we have systemwide congestion management strategies and then we also have some corridor level. Um just as a whole, the systemwide ones are um more of a toolbox. There's just a variety of different ways to um manage uh congestion um based off best practices and um what some of our peer NPOS and regions are doing as well. And then just on screen I just have a snapshot of a variety of those. Um just I'll name a few just like travel weather management uh traveler information work zone management um travel demand management is a big one too. So really a lot of these are focused um mainly on strategies that don't involve adding capacity but we do have in that right left corner as a last resort um capacity adding strategies which is really um you know adding a lane or widening um as absolutely necessary. um still in step six. These are um corridor level strategies and we broke these down into two different buckets and actually I should say we three different buckets. So on this slide we're showing strategies related to um respond to recurring congestion and at the bottom of the slide I have a definition of that. Um so that's um recurring congestion is congestion that's generally predictable. It's regularly occurring and it's typically caused by excessive demand compared to the capacity of of the system. So that really means that there's more cars on the roadways designed for. Um so we do have this will be packaged into the final CMP document with much more greater greater detail with a large table identifying each of the corridors the need that we've diagnosed or identified and then paired with a um strategy that we've identified um based on the congestion and also the physical characteristics um that we're seeing on the roadway and also looking at crash data as well. And in general, most of these um um strategies can be summarized into um these greater buckets or categories that I have bolted on screen. So that's increasing capacity, um travel demand management, reconfiguring weaving sections, transportation systems management and operations, um interchange and intersection operation improvements, and traffic operational management. Um so a lot of engineering terms in there but our document does also help define what some of those are as the reader goes through it. So on this slide too um this is still recurring congestion which is again those predictable regularly occurring um situations in a congested um situation but these are just showing intersections which have similar um strategies as well. Um there's a lot of I know to digest and we have a lot of insets on this map um just to show a snapshot to y'all in this presentation. Um but again we do have this all documented with greater detail um in a memo and in a c in this draft CMP document as well. um that really lists out uh the either the segment or the intersection that diagnosed need or challenge and um the the strategy um to resolve that challenge or need. All right. And then our last bucket of these are for non-recurring congestion. So the difference non-recurring congestion is congestion that causes unreliable travel times um caused by transient events. So these are traffic incidents, um you know, bad weather conditions, a temporary work zone, um and even special events. So compared to the last couple maps we just looked at, there's a lot a lot less of these across the region. Um but we do have um you know, some of these spots that we're seeing it on corridors. Um so I'll go through these. The strategies are a little bit different. So they're involved with providing guidance that positive guidance um on the roadway. So rumble strips um striped lines, raised pavement markings, giving some speed back feedback or speed feedback signs. Um also just conducting an ICE uh study which is an intersection operation improvement um excuse me intersection control evaluation um study at uncontrolled intersections um for work zones giving some advanced um signage to notify uh drivers um and also implementing the Texas manual on uniform traffic control devices um through work zone um for traffic control. Um in addition to just enhancing and ma maintaining um existing pavement um markings and signage and also of course uh educational campaigns for driver behavior. Um so that's what we have for non-recurring um strategies here and again this is documented in detail in our draft CMP document. Um we're um wrapping up getting close to wrapping up now. Um so step seven then is um programming and implementing these strategies. Um so this here just shows that um really programming and implementing these CMP strategies is responsibility of a lot of different parties. Um and once we have that CMP document, um this was really a collaborative effort to um implement strategies across the region um and at the corridor level um to help resolve and improve congestion. So um just quickly um at the regional level of course it's the NPO the El Paso NO and um what we're doing here is providing um this data analysis this document to really guide um the effort across the region in um implementing infrastructure and um mechanisms to reduce congestion and really how the NO does that is through their MTP which we're also working on and through the short-term plan through the tip. Um at the corridor level, a a lot of our planning partners through Tech Scott, New Mexico, DOT, the municipalities, transit agencies, the county um and similarly at the project level. Um we're working with these partners to hopefully implement some of these um strategies through your capital improvements programs as well. But hopefully once we have this draft document and the adopted document um it's something that can be useful um for our um partner agencies to help um resolve congestion across the region. Um and then here the big step that we're working on as we also work through um the RMS 2052 the MTP is really um taking in these recommendations from the CMP um to reflect them in the MTP as well. Um so the CMP is being considered and incorporated throughout this MTP project identification evaluation process, prioritization and you know ultimately that fiscally constrained um project list. Um I do want to note one of our um as we are we just had this call for projects um project nominations for the NTP um and soon we'll move into um project ident or excuse me project um prioritization and selection. One of our evaluation criteria um as a reminder is related to the CMP and how a project contributes um to these CMP strategies. Um and then one key item I will note to my last one on this slide really is that NPOS's and non-attainment um and non-attainment of air quality standards these capacity adding projects that are programmed in the MTP you know they must be identified as a congestion management strategy in the CMP. So this is one of the key interreations um between the MTP and the CMP and we're very cognizant of that um in preparing and NTP. All right. And then step eight is really we kind of end at a point that we began with this process where so we began this process where we first started looking at we looked at the last CMP from 2019 and the strategies that were identified there and then identified which of those strategies were implemented through projects. um since that 29 CMP and assess the performance of the system and really pause to think, you know, were any of these um were these strategies effective? Were they not effective? Um and just had that um understanding of we want to implement and recommend strategies, you know, that are effective for our region. Um so this now um we went through that step eight, that step zero. um early on, but now we're setting up the system again to document in the CMP um how to do that assessment. So really this last step is really just setting up a framework so that um you know we do pause and reflect um and un um and assess the effectiveness of the strategies that we're implementing. Um so this last step um were will be documented in the CMP document. um as a means to assess the system at this systemwide whole level um through the performance measures we have and at the project level. Um really thinking about those corridors, those segments um and those strategies there. Um and also just to recognize that the CMP really is a living document um that relies on a lot of our implementing partners um to carry through the strategies that we recommend in the document. um onto our roadways. All right. And then I'll wrap up with just some next steps in our schedule. So again, we're still working through um the MTP as it's a longer process. So there will be continued coordination between the CMP and the MTP. Um with that, we'll capture these congestion reducing strategies um and added capacity projects from the CMP into the MTP. Um we'll finalize the development of this framework for evaluating the effectiveness of these strategies identified. Um and we're preparing that CMP document. Um and with that we'll continue to have coordination with the TAC and you all the TPP um as we get through the final steps um of the CMP. Um and right now this is what our schedule looks like. Um we're here in June um June 20th. So this is that um yellow one right here if you can see my cursor. Um so um right now we are preparing the CMP document and we'll return to you again um this summer. This is the end of my presentation. Thank you Robbie. Appreciate it. Uh I don't know if you have any other comments. In a nutshell, the uh the CMP is is one of the required uh processes and documents that that is required of all MPs of more than 200,000 you know once we are TMAS. So, but the the at the end of the day the all of the analysis it well the CMP focuses specifically on congestion right so the CMP feeds a lot of uh not only it identifies the congestion issues but also identifies some of the strategies that need to go into the MTP right so um one of the requirements that I think Robbie mentioned is that uh any added capacity project that we include in our in our MTP and the long range plan must come from a from a functional operational CMP, right? It's not just we can't just, you know, invent a net capacity project just like that. It has to be part of this CMP process to to ensure that it's something that is really, you know, going to help the congestion at the regional level. So, this just an update on on where we are. I think the the Coldplay concert uh demonstrated the importance of this the CMP. So members, any questions? I I have a question. Mayor, so uh the consider are there considerations being made for local projects that don't reach that state level congestion, right? So in general terms, the the projects that add capacity, you know, need to come from from from the CMP, right? Um but the the question in some cases the question is, well, you're adding capacity, but it the regional impact, you know, may not be because not every project is a widening of I 10, right? Or, you know, or a freeway, right? So there's there's a little bit of of um of a leeway and and you know analysis that that goes into that. But we definitely you know consider the projects that are coming in from the local governments that uh even though it may be a a smaller in size or even a smaller dollar amount but they they need to be part of the same process coming from CMP. Any other questions? Thank you Robbie. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. So, let's move on to item 11, the quarterly with item A. Texas transportation commissioners Alex me and Steven Alvis visit El Paso. Uh this uh happened uh earlier this week on Monday. Senator Blanco, thanks for for uh organizing and putting that that uh meeting together. uh there were multiple activities but uh but the meeting itself on Monday afternoon I think was a was a great uh uh a great opportunity for them to hear from many of you that that attended that that meeting as well and thank you for for doing that. Um Senator, you want to Sure. This will be um uh all of the Texas Transportation Commissioners have visited uh El Paso uh at at my invitation. So, we're really excited. As you all know, uh they're going through the UTP process. The UTP draft, uh is is going to be released today or was yesterday? Today. Today, actually. Yeah. Um so, we're really excited. As you all know, we've got major uh projects. Uh we've got downtown 10, we've got Borderland Expressway, and and and a variety of others. Um but they were very impressed with our community. And often times when uh these individuals as they travel throughout the state and see and visit different NPOS's in different communities uh they usually don't get a warm welcome. They usually get complaints. U so they have to deal with a lot of that. But in following uh conversations with them after their trip, both Commissioner Alvis and Commissioner me expressed uh how impressed they are with our community. uh one uh the unity that our uh region has uh and two how welcome being we are. Um so we had a excellent round table with a cross-section of transportation leaders uh so it was very productive and uh we had representing the county we had uh judge Samgo uh the city of El Paso our mayor mayor prom uh attended as well and members of the delegation uh and other leaders. So, uh, overall very impressed and, uh, I think, um, uh, it looks promising for our request for funding, uh, under the UTP. Um, I don't know if you had any comments or Well, no, just um, a great meeting and it was obvious that the respect that they've gotten for the delegation uh, just came out. Uh, the respect of how you work together, how we come together and he made a emphasis that going to a community that doesn't get together puts him in the middle of it. and therefore they have it's very difficult for them and so having this kind of unity and collaboration uh is really going to open the doors for some of the funding uh it'll be it'll be facilitated better than in areas that people don't get together so he was very complimentary and thank you it's obvious that the senator had a lot to do with them wanting to be here and the perception they had of us so I think one one of the things that they also mentioned is is that it is important to participate in the process and to show up. So, you've heard me say this, you know, many many times here. Um, showing up at the commission meetings, um, advocating for our projects, of course, but making sure that that it's done in a way that we're, you know, promoting the partnerships, um, because again, one of the things that they say is like, yeah, everywhere they go, well, they they get, you know, requests for for funding, right? And uh so they also have the the challenge of of making decisions where to put the money. So you know the things that that we already know it's not only showing priorities, showing consensus, but also showing skin in the game. It's one of the things that that they mentioned as well. So um I think we're we've done a a good job in the last couple of years of showing up in the mission meetings, but we have to keep it up. Absolutely. I also want to give a shout out to our district engineer for text toast who's done a phenomenal job. Uh everyone sang his praises in the meeting. Um we this is an engineer and team who has been extremely accessible to all of our communities. So if you don't know Tomas uh get to know him, extremely helpful, extremely knowledgeable and we appreciate all you do for for our district. Thank you sir. And I don't know if you had any comments. Uh no, I just uh you know, I'll echo e echo your comments. Uh the uh the commissioners were very impressed with the uh the synergy in the room. Uh very diverse uh folks talking about transportation, but they were all pulling in the same direction. So uh hasn't always been the case. Uh and they've made note of that. So it was great to see Kas were a tight two days this No missed. And I would like to add Senator that it's just an exciting time I think for our community just to have seen them here present in El Paso and um the enthusiasm I think that we felt in the room and you know along with their collaboration. So, we are fighting for the same dollars, you know, across the state, but uh it's an opportunity that we should, you know, really um take advantage of because there's there's a lot of willingness for for us to collaborate with the county, the city, and other entities. And I think we really need to take advantage of this opportunity um and move forward together as one united front. We appreciate your leadership in the meeting. All right. Uh Mr. Mr. Chair, let me jump then to draft uh to item D since uh you mentioned the the UTP which is relevant as well. Uh just quickly the uh as you mentioned the the draft UTP is being presented to the Texas Transportation Commission today. Um what I think they're presenting today is just the you know sort of like the the the regional totals. Uh what all of us are waiting to see is the the specific project list, right? That's what we're what we all want to see. if our projects got funding or or not. I believe that's going to be released on June 25th. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's it's not today. It's going to be June 25th, which is there is a public meeting um at 1 p.m. uh virtual if if you're interested in in participating. And then on June 27th, the public comment begins right on the on the UTP. So once we see the project list and and all other uh information related to the UTP um so the the comment period begins on the 27th of June and ends on July 28th. So um we still have one TPB meeting in between. uh once we see the the results or you know what uh what the draft of UTP uh says uh we would probably encourage everybody to to uh you provide letters of support um for your municipalities or or agencies groups and and so on. But uh so I'll keep you posted on once we get that project list and I'll keep you posted and hopefully we'll we'll see some good news for for our projects. All right. Uh let me then go back to uh item number B or letter B which is the international border crossings IBC strategic plan and initial coordination in Sidad Huarees. We do have public comment right. Do you want to take it first? Take public comment first. Okay. All right. So we have a couple of people that signed up for to speak on this item. Uh we have uh Mr. Mario Pores. And let me say quickly, Mario is a obviously a very well known by many of you. He's been a champion for uh bational crossber events and uh for the development of the of this strategic plan that that I'm going to be talking about. um he hopefully will play an important role in in helping us with uh the stakeholder communication and and uh getting the the work done. So, welcome Mario. Let me just remember for the speakers uh we've got uh uh three minutes. Okay. Uh good morning. uh to me um I'm bored. Uh good morning as an Blanco. Um I I like to I agree. uh um Alex meet and Stephen Alvin, but we need to look at the at it for a general perspective for a regional perspective including uh Ser Santa Teresa and Suarez and El Paso. Okay. Okay. Um, I'd like to accelerate the international border crossing a strategic plan and initial coordination for for Santa Teresa to tornado to improve mobility. between Huarez um El Paso isa. Um you you should explore innovative border like the Colia and and Texas. corridors between I um between [Music] noon and Texas. Why not something similar or better for our region and working together as one team? Given our geographic isolation, an average of uh 480 mi two for 80 80 miles for other ports. of entry. We must think rigidly and ex and ex act strategically for ba which of uh uh which of the Americas are not oppose but perhaps consider Another project later. After all, after all improvements have been [Music] had been made across all wishes in terms of influent in instructor operations and efficiently on both ways. or potentially um uh GSA 18 project. We must then we must see this as a region and one community. Our board of our vote of consider no recognize that citizens as well as we we will all benefit in we for for one team. Okay. Bye-bye. Okay. Okay. Mario, I just I want to say thank you so much for your advocacy. As you all know, Mario has has uh uh battled with a condition. Um but his passion for our region, his passion for uh crossber trade and interconnectability is demonstrated here today. Um, and you are an inspiration for our region and for uh uh all that you do and that you care about is so important for all of us. Um, but that does not deter you from advocating for our region. So, I want to thank you uh because you're such an inspiration to all of us and we appreciate that advocacy. Yeah. I'm Sophia. Um yes. Yeah, I'm working with Mario since February and we're working together for the bational community and and all the things that involve our region. Very much appreciate you. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So, I hope that uh you're going to see him a lot because he is going to be an integral part of the of the team. All right. Next, uh we have Mr. Paul Dip. Welcome back, Mr. Dip. Got three minutes. That's tough to follow. Paul, thank you very much. I better run. Uh Senator Blanco, uh Joe Sango, distinguished members of the committee, good morning. We respect this is about BODA uh the what I what we consider the lifeline to the community uh and I'm talking about the commercial traffic and I would like to say we respect the environmental concerns and we request an evaluation of the entire community to be considered in that in that respect and when the when the votes were taken by council and by the commissioners it was for the immediate neighborhood only. It did not take into account the entire area. There are growing concerns, active growing concerns and by the business community and others regarding the capacity and the impact both of the commercial and pedestrian traffic. On the pedestrian side, UTIP students, people attending entertainment events, all of these are economic generators that impact our community. And uh we I would like to state, you know, in addition to economy wholesale grocerers who I represent that have a a no membership fees location on the border, that ability for people to cross back and forth is always stressed. But this is going to go beyond stress. The cost to take a truck down to Tornado or down to the other points down to Santa Theesa or down to Sagosa is $350 additional per truck. The environmental incomp the environmental impact the competitive factors need to be evaluated. It is very tough for me to sit back and not fight for jobs, not to fight for competitiveness because Laredo is expanding their ports and we are in a position that we um need to protect the future of this community. It's been said, this is done. I want to assure you, ladies and gentlemen, from my perspective, it's not. And I'm not alone. We have others that are fighting aggressively uh to work toward a amicable solution. The day that El Paso, Texas, which is pass of the north, knocks out four lanes of commercial traffic in the center of the city that feels Butterfield, the Northeast Industrial Park, the loop. Um, I think we really need to evaluate where we're going with this. So, I urge you to take revisit it, ask the questions, dig a little deeper. I respect everybody's work here. I expect definitely respect the community neighborhood with whom we serve, of whom we employ. But when people spend a large amount of money in an area counting on a consistency and something is done this quickly without a master plan, it has a true impact. Uh, Senator Blanco and U. Judge Shamango, thank you for your efforts. Everybody in this room, I'm speaking to the choir. Uh, I plan to speak to the choir and to to the members of the church until this thing is done until the very last minute because that's I I I'm inspired to do this uh for the good of the community. I cannot fathom the loss of jobs, businesses closing, food trucks closing, the lack of traffic in that area. uh a lot of people are going to be impacted. So, thank you very much for your time and thank you all for your efforts. Thank you, Mr. Appreciate it. All right. So, that's uh all we have or let's send up for public comment. Thank you. All right. So, then um moving into the what we call the IBC strategic plan. Um what what uh what this plan really intends to do is to look at at all of the crossings that we have in our MO region as as a system right from uh Santa Teresa on on the western part of the MO region in New Mexico all the way to Torno Guadalupe. Um, one of the things that that uh that also that we intend to do is to have a a true robust coordination between the Mexican side and the US side. Um, it doesn't help when when actions or projects or or programs uh happen on one side of the border without the appropriate coordination or the appropriate corresponding action on on the other side of the border. Um so we need to to make sure that everybody's involved on both sides, public sector and private sector like we said before the uh private sector are the users right when it comes to to uh to moving uh freight back and forth. Um the other thing that that we intend to do is as part of the the project um is to identify actions in the short term, medium-term and long term. Um I I'll talk about the the meeting that uh that Congresswoman Escovar uh hosted a couple days ago as well. But uh so I think that that's a very important thing that that we need that we need to do. Um so as far as the study um we intend to look at all the all the u the ports of entry or our border crossings as a system doing a lot of modeling with our tools uh understanding you know really trying to get a better understanding of what drives the choices for people and and industry on which you know bridge to or which crossing to use and and and really what are the the um you know the issues that that we're facing. Right. Um the meeting that the Congresswoman Escovar that many of you attended a couple days ago, I think one of one of the things that I think you know as staff, as technical folks, we know it, but I think it came out is that resulting from the the closure of traffic at the Bridge of the Americas as a region, we're behind. We are behind. I mean, we really need to figure out how we're going to address the the the reduction of or the closing of commercial lanes at at BOD and u moving to the other to the other border crossings, right? So, it's an issue that it's not only northbound but but southbound. Southbound is also tremendously important and we need to understand, you know, what what are the the issues. Um, so that's why it's it's important to to get this study done. I I really wish that we would have been able to start this sooner, but there was a lot of, you know, bureaucracy, a lot of uh uh steps that that we needed to take, but we're finally here. So, the the uh we are going to um begin the activities. One of the initial things is to set up a a steering committee and and I've heard from you judge and from others that really want to be part of this of the steering committee that's going to be you know sort of like helping us and inform also the uh uh the work as we move forward. Uh there will be other more focused groups, work groups or or you know smaller groups uh because definitely we need a lot of technical people here looking collecting more data, analyzing the data and proposing uh solutions but at the end of the day what we do need is a collection of actions or projects which we do not have today right we don't have a project that compares to the expansion of the world trade bridge in Laredo for example. Right. We just don't and uh and and figure out how we can make more efficient the the the crossber movement of people and vehicles and goods and all that using the bridges that that we have today or the crossings that we have today. We know that that they're in different in different uh stages. they have different uh challenges but at the same time different opportunities and uh and we definitely want to build on on the efforts that that are currently going on like the one that the El Paso County right now has which is focusing on Antonio Guadalupe but build on that right and and figure out how we can make that that crossing more more uh more attractive to industry and use it because you know we we really need to to uh you know use all the all the uh assets that that we have today but do it in a more uh organized and and looking at it again as a system. So with that happy to answer any questions um if you have have any but but uh the important thing is that to be for you all to be on the lookout because we are starting and we'll be very very active on this. Venice thanks Senator and thanks Edardo. No you know I think it's great that I think we definitely need more collaboration with Mexico you know and Mr. Mr. Chairman, I think, you know, we should probably explore formalizing that relationship in the MO. We have Mr. Acerto here with us today, but I think that we should probably have an exeicio member of our board. That way, it doesn't affect quorum or anything like that. Uh, but perhaps somebody from the Mexican side um, you know, just to advise us or or just to, you know, uh, take inventory during our meeting so we have that perspective. uh you know one of my biggest concerns with you know when we're taking away capacity on the bridge of the Americas um you know the GSA study didn't have any sort of analysis on the impact on Hadis so when we talk about the environmental impacts of diverting you know 15% of our truck traffic 100 trucks a day on the Hadis side um that is a lot of trucks that are going through residential streets now uh even if you factor in a hundred trucks a day uh That's four trucks an hour. A truck every 15 minutes going down residential neighborhoods, putting kids in danger, uh impacting the environmental impacts on on Wattis. There's going to be increased pollution, increased noise. All the things that we didn't want on our side of the border, we're putting it on their side of the border. And it has uh you know, bridges are projects, you know, that that have impacts obviously on both sides. Uh and it just blows my mind that we just removed capacity uh on the bridge of the Americas without taking into consideration the impacts that it's going to have on kids and adults and residents on the Wattis side. Um so I just hope moving forward that you know perhaps we can formalize that relationship you know whoever the appointee be whether it be from the mayor's office in Wattis or somebody else but we really need to have that perspective moving forward because it took us years years to build the 375 and here we are looking at you know the the borderline expressway. whites doesn't have any of that infrastructure. Yeah. And so the fact that they're going to have to figure out now how to divert 15% of their their commercial traffic. It's going to have an impact on everybody in Huades. It's going to have an impact on students who cross the bridge, people who just come to to Huades to shop. Um so so those are the things we need to really evaluate moving forward. So hopefully maybe we consider again consider an exeicio position. A great point represent Pettis. uh any recommendation on where this individual could could look we what happens in impacts El Paso what happens in El Paso impacts to to Representative Pettis's point I think it makes sense to have someone um that could pro provide perspective and voice obviously not a voting member but uh but someone that can provide perspective yeah I mean definitely we we can do that but but uh I would say that that uh you separate from adding somebody maybe to as as an next official member to the policy board, that coordination between the Mexican side and the US side needs to happen consistently, continuously and and uh not just in one meeting every six months like like we've had. I mean, it's got to be something that is more institutionalized and and I'm glad that that you mentioned and let me recognize Mr. Juana Serto uh representing the the Sadat Huarees government and also Claudia Sudo with the uh the the Mexican consulate in in El Paso. They've been uh along with the state of of Chihuahua as well. They've been participating in in recent meetings and yeah they are trusted partners. they have to be on on the table because again when we when we identify these projects and again they have to be consistent on both sides of the border. The reality to your point uh representative um is yeah we we we listen from the from the folks on on the side right with Emib and say yeah there's a high a highway needs to be improved to get to Santa Teresa but also the highway that that goes along the border to Guadalupe I mean these are multi-million dollar investments and they don't have the resources you know so we have to be very strategic in how to prioritize these these actions, right? And it doesn't help that if on the south side they move in one direction and we say on the north side, no to the opposite direction. It has to be coordinated. So we've had uh companies make major investments in Badis uh on the manufacturing side and um if we want to remain regionally competitive, you look at what's happening in Laredo and in Brownsville and other ports of entry. Um those companies could be lost to those regions. So, uh, and and to the environmental perspective, it's not like there's this magic curtain that that that goes up, uh, and blocks one airshed over the other. Uh, that's not the case. We're essentially pushing, uh, the environmental hazards to other other communities. So, um, if if we may, we'll standing up. I'm sorry. Um if if we can ask the uh staff to provide a recommendation uh for that exopicio member um uh down the road. Um let me ask uh Mayor Prom Chavez to add remarks. Thank you, Chairman. And um definitely we need to consider you know all thoughts in the process. These were conversations that obviously were had before my time in office and so these are things that I'm I'm barely getting up to speed with. But I I just would like to communicate that, you know, um I'm a first generation American. My father is from Paral, my mother from Chihuahua. So we have very deep relationships on the other side of the border and understand, you know, very well these crossber implications. And so this is why this topic is specifically um of importance to me. I just wanted to get a little bit more clarity from you, Mr. uh Galvo, when you said uh we need a collection of actions or projects. Could you maybe briefly describe what you mean by that? You know, what what would be the next step or what you have in mind? So, I mean, an example of a shortterm action is what we're already working with with the state of Chihuahua with Fidel Kiso deentes who they manage the u you know the toll collection, right? So we we know that one of the one of the bottlenecks is you know collecting tolls for northbound traffic right. So so with our tools micro simulation tools of trying to figure out how we can squeeze maybe one or two or or more um uh toll boots in the Saragoa bridge for example. So, I mean that I see as a short-term solution, right? It's not going to fix everything, but it but it helps, right? An example of a medium-term could be, you know, maybe improving the the access to the the crossings, right? Because that's another bottleneck, right? It's it's not just the crossing itself. I mean, we love to to uh pick on on CBP, for example, or now on Anam Southbound, right? the fact that they don't have all the inspection booths open when they should. But uh but those are not the only bottlenecks, right? Getting to and and getting out of the port of entry is uh sometimes is is an issue, right? So are there maybe medium-term could be, you know, some operational improvements that that we can that that we can look at. Long-term is yeah, expanding a a crossing um you know, building a new crossing, right? Um so so those obviously are going to take a long long time to to develop. Um but again we we have to be strategic in in how we we identify those those actions. Any other questions? Thank you. Um okay comment chair just on the meeting that we had. Uh so we met uh Wednesday and uh it's it's incredible the amount of uh effort they've put in about $250 million in the tornado site at the Gualalup site and so we got to meet with the Fed Kiso. They talked about everything. They're putting in gasoline stations. They're going to put rest areas. the uh they now have a very aggressive uh national guard that takes care of all the security making sure that uh and then we've been having a lot of meetings both with a makiladora locally in Chihuahua there's been uh you know meetings in Mexico City so I I don't want to give the impression or that the impression is that there's not a lot of things that are taking place we got to meet with the Alcal thanks to Presidentto and we met there on on Wednesday And uh so they're very very ahead of doing that. They received you know a large amount of like a funding that's going to go to San Heronimo that they'll be talking a little bit about but there's a big investment in in San Heronimo. Uh so I I almost feel like they're way way way ahead of us. If you look at the infrastructure on their site it's almost like 30 miles uh that's connected. We went all the way through uh a lot of people now going to the airport by using Toronne. It it's it's a almost it's a longer but faster. But anyway, I just want to make sure that everyone understands there's been a tremendous amount of relationship with us and their investment. It's $250 million investment they've made on the Guadalupa site. Uh they showed all the technology. They have all the cameras to show the entire operation of all the borders as they're crossing over. Uh so they're they're they're doing some incredible uh infrastructure and and a lot of investment into it. Uh and we just have to keep that relationship going and once again Mr. has been just a really an ideal person to make sure that we're talking to the right people. So thank you. Thank you judge. Appreciate it. Um item C. Okay. So that was item um B. Okay. Right. So item C is Sano needs assessment public meeting. Just briefly, uh kudos to Sanelli. Um they they just uh well, they're in the process of completing their needs assessment plan. Uh that's something that was funded by the policy by the MO, $400,000 that that were uh that were approved for that needs assessment study. So what what hopefully will come out of that needs assessment uh study are individual projects, right? So at that uh meeting that happened uh last week, I think it was last week. Yeah. um you know they showcased a lot of analysis identifying congestion hotspots but the one that that I think is more important are the the safety hotspots right identifying safety and and you know with that then they have now a a collection of projects that can that are now identified and and we can move forward to try to fund them and and address some of the the safety and and mobility concerns specifically for Sanelli. So, just kudos for for that. Uh, mayor, thank you, Mr. Connell. I think that's that's all I have. Uh, any questions for uh 12 item 12 C? Great. Um, and then we were 12D already. Yes. Any questions for 12D? All right. Okay. Uh, no items for executive session. No items. We lost quum. So, um, we're done. Uh, leave it at that. Thank you. Thank you very much. Announce the next meeting. Oh, yeah. Next meeting, uh, July 18th at 9:00 a.m. here at the Blue Flame Building. Thank you, Robert. Have a great week.